battleaxebunny

The movies trained us well: drop a plague, survive the monsters, find your weapons and kill the infected in ever more creative ways; then onward to foil the conspiracy that lurks in the shadows. There’ll be more monsters, that much is inevitable. Comrades will fall to traitors, to the infected, to the corporate clean up ops, to silly accidents, to reckless infighting, to other survivor groups who are never as good as your group. Some of them will eat you. Some of them will try to force their end times religion on you. Some of them just resent your presence and will try to disappear you from their lives. None of them know better than you the best way to survive the world that is now. Nowhere is safe and everyone is out to get you. All the stories told us so.

The stories said: beware the mindless hoards, for they are legion and will overwhelm you.

The stories said: beware the monsters. If it isn’t you, shoot it. Different is dangerous. Different is threat. Different will lull you into letting it in then will strike when your guard is down.

The stories said: beware the dispossessed; they will steal your resources, corrupt your comrades, infect your people with something new.

The stories said: beware the world. Build your walls, set your traps, shrink your territory to the place you can defend. No one else matters. Nowhere else matters.

Except.

We are the monsters. We are the not-so mindless hoards. We are the different, the dispossessed, the ones outside the walls and we will not be destroyed. We will not be silenced. We will not be held back, no matter how beaten and bloody we become. We fight. We move. We talk. We scream. We increase in numbers. And when the world falls, as it has fallen a hundred times before, we build and rebuild, connect and rise, stronger, smarter, deadlier.

A librarian and archaeologist, Evelyn Carnahan has saved the world from three mummy apocalypses whilst raising a family, dealing with a slightly flaky brother, building a career as a romance novelist and occasionally taking part in a little bit of wartime espionage.

What’s her deal?

A librarian working in the Museum of Cairo, Evelyn’s passion is archaeology and when her brother turns up with an artefact connected to the legendary city of Hamunaptra, Evelyn gets her chance to break into the world of adventure-archaeology. After some smart negotiating with a prison warden she secures the release of her future husband Rick O’Connell and along with him and the aforementioned brother, they set off into the desert to find the lost city. Hijinx, quite naturally, ensue.

There are rival archaeologists and a secret group of mummy guardians to deal with, but those are just warm up for the mummy shenanigans that kick off after Evelyn accidentally says the spell to awaken Imhotep, cursed priest of Seti I. He wants to take over the world and resurrect his lost love using Evelyn as a sacrifice, but Evelyn’s not the type to go quietly – it’s her understanding of ancient Egyptian that proves the key to the creature’s downfall and with the first mummy apocalypse averted, she settles into a life of archaeology with Rick and young son Alex.

Except then Imhotep’s dead mistress gets reincarnated and manages to resurrect him and it’s time for mummy apocalypse the second: this time Evelyn must find her kidnapped son, deal with a rush of new visions suggesting she’s the reincarnated daughter of Seti I and stop Imhotep from using the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis to take over the world. Again. While husband Rick is ultimately the one to stop the Scorpion King, it’s Evelyn and her vast store of knowledge on ancient things, that helped them find the secret lair and gave Alex enough skill in Ancient Egyptian to read the resurrection spell that brings her back after she takes a mortal injury. Not only that but she also proves herself an able fighter both in hand to hand combat and with a variety weapons – which comes in useful when assorted minions threaten her nearest and dearest.

Even after the world’s been saved a second time, she doesn’t rest on her laurels. She assists MI-5 with a little wartime espionage then retires to begin yet another career as a novelist; and that’s before you get to the unfortunate events with the undead Chinese emperor and his army of mummies doing battle at the Great Wall of China which tests her full range of skills once more…

She Says:

Evelyn:Look, I… I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I … am a librarian.

You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance.

You better think of something fast, because, if he turns me into a mummy you’re the first one I’m coming after.

Research:

The Mummy (1999)
The Mummy novelisation by Max Allan Collins
The Mummy Returns (2001)
The Mummy Returns novelisation by Max Allan Collins
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor novelisation by Max Allan Collins

Intelligent and adaptable, Evelyn is an expert at turning her skills to whatever is needed in order to protect her friends and family from the onslaught of undead creatures that seem to plague them. While her ability to quickly learn new combat skills is a handy thing to have, what is more valuable are the benefits brought by her extraordinary mind – and as an enthusiastic teacher of historical and linguistic knowledge, she doesn’t just use her knowledge to stop apocalypses but is good at preparing other people for future trouble too.